The GTA market continued to cool in August the numbers are showing us, but although overall sales were down a fair amount from this time last year, new listings were down only a fraction of that. One needs to keep in mind that the market was unusually hot this time last year after all, so keep a grain of salt handy when examining this year’s data. What does all this mean for buyers and sellers? Prices are still up year over year after all, so as we can see there are still plenty of buyers. Prices are however off their higher levels earlier in the year, with places such as Montreal and Vancouver being most resilient in holding price, where as Edmonton was hit the hardest with an 11% drop in average price since April 2010. Also important to understand about the Canadian economy is that the Fed keeps a watchful eye on the housing market and potential bubbles when determining it’s moves on interest rates, and given the recent cooling and out low current inflation rate, the Fed should be in no hurry to raise rates. So, knock on wood, short-term rates will sit tight for months to come.
